I am in my new 1990 pace arrow and wondering if I should spend my money on the outside antenna? I got TV going and see options for rabbit ears, hd and others. Is there a lot of tv available over the air?

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Depending on your location there are many over the air free digital channels. I use a flat indoor omnidirectional digital tv antenna that I purchased from Best Buy for about $30.00.

RCA - Indoor HDTV Antenna - White

It works great. I was having trouble with my batwing antenna receiving a signal so I switched to the flat indoor antenna. The neat thing about this antenna is that it does not take up a lot of space and doesn't need to be moved around to receive a signal. Sometimes I place it on the dashboard if I am having trouble with signal drift.

I have parked in places (Quartsite AZ) where you were doing good to get ANY over the air TV.

I've parked in places were I got say 3 of the big 5 networks.

Where I am parked now the receiver found 39 Services (A service, as defined by this receiver is a video channel) (My other receiver calls them stations).. Now, I get at least two of all the major networks, plus MY TV, THIS TV and some other "Tier 2" stations that are NOT on cable or satellite and often have the best shows on TV.

Most of the places I park in are like this, I get at the minimum the big five plus at least one of the Tier 2 stations. (ME TV, Retro TV, This TV, Antenna TV)

Homeless, what happened to the original antenna on top of the motorhome. It should have a bat wing style Wineguard antenna which will work fine on the new TV. Youmay want to add the Wingman to the antenna. If the antenna is gone, get a Wineguard Sensar IV.

It is all about how the antenna is used. Since there are no analog television frequencies allowed by the FCC in the U.S. for television viewing, just about any antenna you buy will say digital because that will be its intended use. Homeless, my experience with the indoor antenna is that it works just as good as the old Winegard crank up. Like you, there is something wrong with my crank up Winegard and it is not worth the extra money to fix since I don't watch over the air unless I get too lazy to setup my satellite dish on tripod. I have not had any trouble viewing over the air with this antenna.

From the document the following would indicate that it is not a HDTV ready system and would need a conversion box. You can find them reasonably priced on ebay now. Shortly after the change over to digital in the US they were at least double what they are now.

HDTV (digital tv) uses the ATSC standard and analog tv uses the NTSC standard. PAL (M and N) are standards used in the Asia Pacific market.

As to the question on internal antennas picking up the same signals as external antennas. That depends on the location and motorhome construction. If you have metal framing, siding or roofing that can block the signal. Obviously the closer you are to the source the less the metal will interfere since the signal is strong enough to penetrate. The farther away you are the more likely an external antenna (esp one that is amplified) can pick up the weaker signals. Also an external antenna can be rotated to find signals from other directions better than some internal antennas (esp the flat ones that are designed to be wall mounted). You also indicted that the windguard antenna you have is broken and needs repairs. Parts are available at many rv stores and online.